Computer turns on and off at startup repeatedly

Use linux live usb/cd/dvd to run the system.If same issue then my guess would be mobo as chances of years old mobo developing issue is more than chances of TX550M developing issue.

Ok i will try that, but the mobo isn't actually all that old-it was purchased in 2018 and is probably under warranty still.

The strange thing about it is that this problem occurs when the system has been off for 3 or more hours, if it's been off for 30mins to 1 hr, it occurs very rarely(almost never)

When you say system is Off, is it Off as in Standby Mode (Shut down from OS) or Off as in Mains off?
When you shut down Windows, the PSU is still ON and put into standby mode where by 5V Standby trickle power is running on the mobo. This generally manages the soft off/on, wake on LAN , wake from hibernation etc.

When you shut off mains the PSU is completely off. No power on any of its output lines.
So you need to also test when does system exhibit this behavior, when it’s Mains off or soft off or both?
What if you put your system in S2/S3 standby (Sleep) mode? Does it gracefully come out of that or reset again?

Since it does not occur when PSU is off for short duration might also mean that the charged components inside PSU might be playing some role here (As it takes 30 – 40 minutes for capacitors to fully discharge)

Though not very reliable, but as a preliminary check you can try PSU Paperclip test without PC in question and check if the PSU fan runs stable or does it start stop and restart. Do it carefully and if not familiar search google how to do it. Again this may not be very reliable as modern branded PSUs could have variable speed fan system. The fan may not even run if it’s idle. So a multi-meter can be a handy tool here. Success in paperclip test is not necessarily a conformance of healthy PSU. It might still misbehave under load. However don’t run the PSU in paperclip test for long duration. 5 -10 mins is ok. Also make sure that PSU was completely disconnected for at least 30 – 40 mins before undertaking this test.

Mobo interacts with the PSU on Pin # 16 (This is Active Low) and if motherboard circuitry is somehow resetting this pin then PSU will reset itself.

Another thing to try is disconnect the storage device (HDD/SSD) and operate using the Power On/Off button on the cabinet. You may have to long press power button for 3 – 4 seconds to shut down.
When it comes to PSU’s, the only real power supply tester is another good power supply.
If you don’t have another system, ask a friend for help. Borrow his PSU and retry.
Finally call PSU & mobo service centers and describe your problem. If the guy over there has commitment and enthusiasm he might try to help and provide further advice. However above try-outs will put you in a sound position when you talk to service centers.

^when i turn my pc off,i usually shut it down from windows and then switch off the ups as well,which cuts the power supply to the psu.Then i also switch off the ac mains connected to the ups.

This problem occurs rather unpredictably-usually when the system has been switched off from the ac mains and left aside for 2 hours or more.But sometimes it may not occur at all-like today,when despite remaining off for over 12 hours the pc booted up fine and started loading the OS-there were no on-off cycles at startup.

So its becoming really difficult to pin-point the cause of this issue.If it was a frequent occurrence then it would have perhaps been easy to troubleshoot-but as it occurs maybe 2 out of every 5 times i switch on the computer,its hard to find the real cause of this problem.

As the psu is still under warranty,i could have replaced the psu if it was indeed the culprit-but without being absolutely sure,i just cant send it for RMA now.

you said some settings in the bios/windows could be causing the issue-so i checked the power settings under windows and they all appear to be normal.Also the settings in bios appear to be ok as well.In fact if some bios setting was causing the problem,i think it would have been corrected by now as i had replaced the cmos battery recently which had reset all settings to their default values.

As i dont have much time to spare right now,i couldn't test the potentially faulty components such as the psu or mobo more thoroughly -but i will attempt to do so very soon-maybe i will try that paper-clip test like you suggested.

If i send my psu for RMA without ascertaining that its indeed the cause of my woes,will corsair replace it without checking?Even if the Psu was faulty,the problem might be difficult to reproduce,thereby making it hard to convince the folks at their service centers that its indeed acting up(as this on-off cycle tends to occur unpredictably).How much time do they take to replace a faulty unit?Will they provide a new unit or a refurb one?

I do have a seasonic s12ii psu in a secondary machine,but dont want to remove it from that system for testing as the process of removing and then reinstalling a power supply is just too cumbersome for me.Also i find the 24 pin atx power connector exceedingly difficult and hard to remove from the mobo-so i try to avoid doing it as much as possible (as i'm afraid that i might apply too much force while doing so and break something lol).

there are no reliable pc repair shops in the vicinity of my place-a few ones that exist are scammers/cheaters who try to take advantage of the customer's ignorance by overcharging them for shoddy,low quality repair jobs.So there's no hope that someone like them might be able to help me either.

Remove UPS from the equation for a few days for now and test again.

i tested my system for the last few days but this issue didn't occur.But today when i turned it on,it started normally and booted into windows and then suddenly just turned off abruptly(while all the services and background processes were loading).Then after a few seconds it turned back on again and started loading windows.

After it booted into windows i found 2 entries in the event log that were marked as "error" and "critical" respectively:

the one that read error displayed the foll. msg :"The previous system shutdown at 4:05:52 AM on ‎8/‎25/‎2019 was unexpected." (source:Eventlog)

and the critical error was as follows: "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly." (source:kernel Power)

This has never happened before,on earlier occasions the system turned on and off a few times at startup-but exhibited no such behaviour in windows.

Is this a psu issue or a motherboard fault?I checked the voltages on all rails of my psu using Hwinfo but they appear to be normal.

This situation is becoming really difficult to diagnose as sometimes the system works for days on end with no problems whatsoever,and then suddenly when its the least expected this system power-cycling issue surfaces for no apparent reason!

Most probably psu or mobo(my bet is on mobo). What is the manufacturing date on mobo box?

More likely to be a mobo issue. What's the mobo revision (v1.0,v1.1,...)? AFAIK the first version of B75M D3H was great and then they started cost cutting measures with each subsequent revision.

The board was purchased in Dec 17,the date of import that's listed on the box is July 2014.

So the board was already over 2 years old when i bought it.

The revision of the board is V 1.2 (the final revision)-it was already updated to the latest bios as well at the time of purchase.

so is the likely culprit the mobo?

can a defective psu turn off,and then back on all by itself?or does it need a signal from the mobo to be able to do that?

Check the voltages using hwinfo(when system is running) & in bios.If everything is alright(3.3V,5V,12V or very close to these values) then chances for bad mobo are higher. It could even be a bad processor(but those are rare & you need to be real unlucky to have that).

the voltages appear to be normal-but in my pc i can only view the voltages of 12v and 3.3v rails-the readings for 5V aren't shown in hwinfo as well as the bios.

That's strange. Anyway you can try getting a cheap 600/700w psu that comes for ~600-700 from some known company like iball/zebronics etc & try with that & run your system with that for 2-3 days(just run on integrated graphics & one hdd).You can always sell it back with price cut & think of it as service charge.

in my system,i can only view the readouts of 12v,3.3v and a few other rails in hwinfo but 5v is not one of them-maybe the sensor that detects these voltages doesn't support the 5v rail for some odd reason.But i think it can still be tested with a multimeter-if the psu was at fault,would it still produce normal voltages?

i have another system lying around that has a frontech 450 w psu-i may remove it from there and install it on this system for testing purposes for a couple of days atleast.

there seems to be no other way to confirm which component is actually malfunctioning-the psu or the mobo.

If the mobo does turn out to be defective,will i get any warranty from GB's service center for it?Technically its under 3 years warranty from the date of purchase-so they are expected to accept it for rma as the date of purchase was dec '17.

or does GB consider the commencement of the warranty period to be from the date of import/manufacture?

i dont understand why my components always fail unexpectedly despite being used with considerable care,i have seen pcs in schools/offices/colleges etc that are greatly abused but still last a surprisingly long time.

Chances of psu being faulty are low if voltages are fine but it does not mean psu is not faulty at all.

If gigabyte has this mobo lying in their old stock then they will give replacement if they fail to fix the current mobo.If they don't have it in stock(since it is out of production for a few years now) then they will issue you a credit note(expect ~30% of invoice value) valid for purchase of some other gigabyte product.

If failure of components is a pattern then issue may be with electrical supply(mains/ground/neutral).

Earlier this issue only happened occasionally but now its happening everytime i switch on the pc-so much so that i have been compelled to stop using it for the time being,as i am afraid continued usage might accidentally damage some other component which might be ok.Previously it used to power cycle a few times upon being switched on and then booted into windows-but now its not even booting up properly-it just starts up,then shuts down,only to startup and shut down again over and over-it doesn't even get to the windows loading screen.

due to my busy schedule,i couldn't test the system with another psu yet,but i will do so within a few days time.

i removed the corsair psu and installed a frontech psu in my system(running with onboard gfx and 1 hdd only).Upon switching on it booted up and went straight to windows,there were no power cycling anomalies whatsoever.

I've kept it running since afternoon and so far there have been no issues.If the system continues to work properly for the next 2-3 days,can we conclude that the psu was the culprit?

In that case should i submit the psu for RMA?


But one thing that concerns me is that if the folks at corsair's service center aren't able to replicate the same issue on their test systems,will the return the psu and claim that its working fine?Do they perform any testing at all in the returned units?

I think this is your 2nd/3rd psu that went bad,right? Just give it to service centre mentioning system works fine with other psu & note down the psu serial no. to confirm its replacement else if they give same psu back then ask them what exactly did they fixed to return same psu.

no,i don't think any other psu had died in the recent years/months before this one.

Of course i can't say for sure that the psu is indeed the one that's malfunctioning just yet-will have to observe it a little longer before reaching any conclusions.

But if the psu does have to be replaced, then it will be a little unexpected, not to mention surprising as i didn't think a tx series psu would fail so soon-its only around 1.6 years old.

Does corsair provide refurbished /repaired psus for defective units or do they replace them with new units? I've seen people on olx, fb marketplace etc who were selling new sealed corsair psus and claiming that they were Rma'd units received from the service center.

As far as I know corsair gives new psu,in fact I don't think any big psu brand gives refurbished psu.

it has been the 4th day with the frontech psu and the system is yet to exhibit any system restarts or power cycling issues.

So for all intents and purposes it seems the psu might have been faulty.

Should i now send an email to corsair india's tech support with a description of the problem and request them to replace the psu?

one thing that concerns me a bit is that the mobo is running without gpu-is it possible that the mobo maybe faulty but without gpu it exhibits no issues-but if i put the gpu back in then this problem might begin again?

mobo+corsair psu+no graphics card=issue
mobo+frontech psu+no graphics card=no issue
From above it can be seen that corsair psu definitely has some role in the issue.

quicky008 said:

one thing that concerns me a bit is that the mobo is running without gpu-is it possible that the mobo maybe faulty but without gpu it exhibits no issues-but if i put the gpu back in then this problem might begin again?

Click to expand...

Well you could try testing the Corsair PSU without the GPU for a couple of days. If it suffers problems then PSU is at fault.

Hi, I did not read the complete thread thoroughly tbh, but looking at the problem, it seems similar to a problem I had with my Corsair PSU as well. (I was using a Corsair TX 850V2). I was also facing the exact scenario and since my PSU was out of warranty , I had to buy a new PSU (Corsair). Got it replaced at Cost 2 Cost , Nehru Place and did not face this particular problem again. (Posted a thread about a different problem which occurred after that,which I forgot to update finally- The GPU was bad and had to be replaced in that case . Will update that thread as well.)

What issue did you face that prompted you to replace your psu? Was it restarting unexpectedly every now and then like mine?


And did your psu and gpu go bad at the same time, or did the gpu issue start once you replaced the faulty psu?

How old was your corsair psu when it started exhibiting this behavior ?

My PSU and GPU were purchased at the same time (Around 2013- GPU had been RMA-ed once in 2014,but I am not sure about the exact year of GPU RMA.). As far as I remember about the PSU issue. the sequence of events were:

1) My GPU started giving Memory errors in HWinfo but I ignored them for a while since it was , at that time , not giving slower framerates for the games I was playing.
2) Then,my PC would not boot if I tried to turn it on after ,say overnight,but after a couple of tries,it booted up and after that it used to boot up normally within the day.
3) One day, the PC would not give any display.The fans would spin and lights would light up ,but before it could boot to windows, it shut down. After that, it refused to boot.That's when I took it took to Nehru Place for checking and the engineer there confirmed it was the PSU (After checking with a spare PSU). After replacing the PSU ,the PC worked okay for some time but then the issue I highlighted in my thread (Desktop boots without display or turns off occasionally.) cropped up.Please keep in mind I had been using an RMAed GPU for close to 4-5 years.
4)In around June this year,my RMAed GPU finally died with RSOD and I had to replace it.

So,roughly the GPU (June 2019) died after a year after the PSU (August 2018) was changed.

Also, yes, the system would restart unexpectedly in the middle of some games and around that time, the PSU was already pushing 4+ years.

^thanks for your inputs,did you check whether your psu was producing any weird ,out of spec voltages on any rail when this problem occurred(the issue with the psu,i mean)?Which psu did you buy as its replacement?

i am thinking of writing to corsair and asking them to replace the psu-does any here have any idea as to how much time corsair usually takes to replace a faulty psu?

Corsair RMA is considered good in India but your psu model TX550M has not been in stock at major shopping sites for quite a few months now so it may take longer than usual(especially if corsair decide to send this model from abroad).

quicky008 said:

^thanks for your inputs,did you check whether your psu was producing any weird ,out of spec voltages on any rail when this problem occurred(the issue with the psu,i mean)?Which psu did you buy as its replacement?

i am thinking of writing to corsair and asking them to replace the psu-does any here have any idea as to how much time corsair usually takes to replace a faulty psu?

Click to expand...

You're welcome.No,tbh, I did not check voltages (I couldn't boot up my PC). I bought the modular version of the same PSU (TX 850M) since after all, it had served me well for close to 6 years.You may ask why I did not claim warranty since for Gold rated TX Series PSUs (same for TX 550M) it is 7 years (*www.corsair.com/ww/en/warranty),it's because I had misplaced the original invoice long ago ,couldn't remember which site I had ordered it from (Flipkart or Snapdeal) and for some reason, my orders history for Flipkart at least was truncated beyond 2013(most probably bought it in 2012.).

They should do it quick enough if they see there is obvious defect. One of the pipes on my H80i was cracked with use and when they saw it,they replaced it on the very same day that I took it to the service centre.

In my case the problem isn't that obvious-the power cycling issue and system restarting happens often but not always.I hope if they are unable to somehow replicate the problem on their test machines,they wont return the psu stating that its ok.

That makes me wonder-do they test the returned units at all for problems before issuing a replacement?

You could try mailing them,after all, your PSU is still in warranty and if you have the invoice, the least they can do is test it. You should also attach screenshots highlighting the incorrect/absent voltage readings. Best of all, if you can take it personally to a service centre. Even if they don't have testing equipment themselves,you could request them to get it tested at a shop known to them which has the proper equipment.(This has happened with me in Nehru Place). By the way, Corsair warranty is by Kaizen inforserve (Contact US | Kaizen) . Try calling them beforehand , if you plan to go (The kaizen website has phone numbers too).

i've sent an email to their official address (indiaservice@corsair.com)-lets see how it goes.

I brief albeit late update on the situation, i went to corsair 's rma center at kolkata and submitted my psu-they said they would replace it but unfortunately its currently out of stock-so they have asked me to wait for a couple of days.

If it was available with them, they might have replaced it on the spot.

My experience with Corsair PSU RMA - Once took 21 days ( GS600 ) and once only 7 days ( VS450 ).

BTW, This could be the PSU but I do remember facing such weird issue because of faulty cabinet power on switch - now how weird was that ?!

Yes,i have obtained the replacement psu recently-it seems ok so far and this issue has not occurred again.